A lot of people have commented on how much they like Jim Michalak's blue line plans. These are done on a blueprint machine that Jim bought when the folks who were printing his plans went out of the blueprint business. The plans are large and very readable but suffer a couple of drawbacks. First of all, almost any liquid - even water - will cause the lines to run and may make the plans unreadable. And any prolonged exposure to light, especially direct sunlight, will fade the drawings to the point that they are again unreadable. Even if stored in a dark place, the blueline drawings have a limited life and will eventually dissappear.
We asked Jim if he would think about redrawing some of his plans in a smaller format for printing on a home computer and so that they could be downloaded instantly. This has several advantages for the builder. First, the plans are in your hands right away. No waiting for the mail or postage to pay. Also, you now have a permanent digital copy so if you spill coffee on your plans, you can just print a new set.
We started with Jonsboat and the digital copies are really nice - Here is a sample page:
When you print the instant download plans on your home computer, you get a perfect, easy to read set of plans that rivals the original blueline format.
Now there are a couple of reasons that Jim was not entirely happy about this new idea. First of all, with the ease of sending such files around the internet, he was afraid that he would sell only one set of plans and that would be it. I assured him that our customers are honest folks who respect intellectual property. I hope you will help me prove this to Jim.
The second thing that Jim was concerned about was the fact that he was paying for his printer by selling paper plans. He did not want to lower the price of the downloadable plans and be left with a printer he could no longer use. So we suggested that he keep the price the same. That way he comes out Ok either way you buy the plans. But you do save the cost of postage with the instant download and you do get a digital backup. What you don't get is a nice set of paper plans - until you print one. |
